66 S. Rastogi, AKS Rawat Review ARticleS A comprehensive review on bergenin, a potential hepatoprotective and antioxidative phytoconstituent SUBHA RAStOGi*, AJAY KUMAR SiNGH RAwAt Pharmacognosy & ethnopharmacology Division National Botanical Research institute lucknow, 226001 india *corresponding author: fax: +91522 2205836, e-mail: subharastogi1@rediffmail.com Summary Bergenin (1) is a c-glucoside of 4-O-methylgallic acid that has been reported to occur naturally in several genera. it exhibits a wide array of biological activities and also in sev- eral cases is responsible for the traditional use of its natural sources. it has been shown to exhibit various pharmacological activities, and thus has several possible applications in clinical research. this review presents a comprehensive literature search of different studies carried out on this secondary metabolite, especially its hepatoprotective potential, antioxidative and antiviral effects as well as antiulcerogenic and antiarthritic activities. Ber- genin seems to be a potent phytotherapeutic agent as demonstrated by experimental data in animal models. therefore, further investigations may help in exploiting its properties and developing phyto-pharmaceuticals based on it. Key words: bergenin, phytoconstituent, pharmacology, hepatoprotective, antioxidant INTRODUCTION For decades, natural products have played an important role in the develop- ment of drugs and drug leads. Several recent reviews have discussed the im- portance of compounds derived from natural sources in modern medicine [1-7]. According to recent survey by Newman et al. [2], 61% of 877 small-molecule new chemical entities introduced as drugs worldwide in 1981–2002 can be traced to or were inspired by natural products. the secondary metabolites from natural so- urces are good candidates for drug development because being elaborated within